This invention relates to battery testing apparatus, and more particularly to automatic leak testing apparatus for determining the integrity of battery cells.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 286,067, filed Sept. 5, 1972, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,585 of Henry Toback, assigned to the assignee hereof, there is shown an air leak tester designed to be applied by hand to determine whether battery cells have leaks therein. More particularly, the Toback patent application describes a hand operated yoke having a plurality of nozzles adjustable to fit over alternate cell inlets. Air is forced into those alternate cells and a meter notes changes of pressure which indicate air leaks. Thereupon, the remaining alternate cells are similarly tested.
Hand operated leak testers such as that described in the Toback patent application, although technically sound, necessarily introduce the danger of human error. Said otherwise, notwithstanding the clear technical advances embodied in the Toback patent application, it is a fact of life that fallible human operators may be counted upon occasionally to use the apparatus improperly. When such mishaps occur, the efficiency of the battery assembly line will be substantially impaired, whether a leaky battery was not detected or whether a perfectly good battery was rejected. The economic disadvantage of the latter case is clear, and the former may even involve safety risks, in view of the acid content and noxious gas emitting tendencies of batteries.
It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide substantially automatic air leak testing apparatus for use in a battery production line.
It is a further object to provide an automatic mechanism for isolating defective batteries from the main processing or production line once defects have been detected therein.